Without religion, is a prayer just a wish?

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  • RE
    RE Member Posts: 4,591 Member
    #42
    Not a wish
    In my humble opinion it is not a wish, God (or your higher power) hears your prayers weather you believe he is there or not.

    RE
  • infinity
    infinity Member Posts: 1
    #43
    hope0310 said:

    Deep
    Very deep subject!!!

    Now I am trying to figure out exactly what I am!!!

    I pray....at least started when mom was diagnosed..
    I do not go to church..
    I do believe that my mother is in heaven..
    Her brother was an atheist, I do not think he is there..(which confused us very much when she was "talking to him and seeing him in her final days"...
    I believe there is something "higher" than us, but do not know what...

    OK....what am I folks!!!????

    Elysia

    For you Hope
    You are normal Hope.

    Some say you are composed of spirit and matter. Spirit part being that which cannot be touched/ seen... you know what I mean... some people call it a soul.

    The other part is matter -- I guess that is the body. Sigh and can't it be a pain sometimes!

    As for prayer... I recall the fellows and their olive trees.

    Why not let prayer be what ever takes a person out of the advanced monkey group and leads them to ponder on atheism, agnosticism and the meaning of life, why we humans are so odd and what do they mean who so easily tell you what GOD wants or needs!

    An aspect of religions seems to be the ease with which the adherents confuse the path and destination.

    My religious friends sincerely explain the path to God/Heaven is through their church/ prophet alone. Only one way... theirs. Scary ... reminds me of Voltaire..
    "God made man in His image and now man returns the compliment."

    I studied three religions, was brainwashed in one. Rehabilitated myself, and now all I seek is humility and wisdom. I avoid like the plague those who tell me I am such a nice person that if only I would join their religion... Sigh.

    Religious people who go about preaching for converts to their spiritual medicine remind me of (sadly) unhappily married people who insist that one should get married.

    {Hint to the young.. when a married person suggests often that you you should be married- their marriage is in BIG trouble - RUN. Same with parents telling you ... they want a grandchild before they die...... run dear young couple and don't let us old fogies have that much power over your life's choices. [Choose sure but not on anyone else's emotions.
    Preferably by you using a balance between reasoning and emotion.]

    Whilst I fear pain and suffering to come..still I feel as though I have won a ticket on a Nasa trip to the moon... lucky and terrified at once... but then again I was always a bit odd.

    When a person I knew received information they dreaded my religious friends started Prayer Groups for his recovery. Holy muttering monkeys! Didn't seem to occur them that the fellow's life was unfolding just the "god" of their religion intended.

    It is true I have to accept it - I have always been a bit odd -- went looking for God when I was four. So no one should take too much notice of an old duck's ramblings!

    From what I can work out..those close to us who guess we are ill suffer more than we do... then again don't hold me to this claim... I don't think I have suffered enough yet.

    Hey if some one could have a sip of malt whiskey for me (without damaging themselves) --Whiskey(not Bourbon)-- that would be great!

    Alcohol was not my thing but diet/fizzy drinks were and that is probably why I can't drink either, now. So any one who is able -- well 20 mls of Glenfidich would just about be lovely!

    Peace to you all and keep me in any prayers you like .. ask for wisdom and courage for me if you wish.. I do remember the NASA space ship that blew up on take off... but hells bells don't pray for my ticket to be taken away.

    Infinity.
  • mariam_11_09
    mariam_11_09 Member Posts: 691 Member
    #44
    PhillieG said:

    Sure
    I think religion can help some people get to where they want to go. It probably fits like a glove and that's great for them. I think there is a saying that goes something like this: "There are many paths to heaven". Ha! having just Googled that, I see that it is not something that is accepted by christians or at least the majority of them. It's probably a Buddhist saying that uses "salvation" instead of "heaven".

    My point is that I believe there are many ways to get to the same end. I do not think that a person has to go through a religion to get to heaven if that is where they want to get to or that religion is necessary at all. I can understand how there can be comfort for some who are with other like-minded people. It's just not for me.

    It's all based on faith. I do not believe that anyone knows the answer and we won't find out until we die.
    I do remember one member saying that he wanted to be a christian partly in case they are right and there is God. Cover your bets I guess? That made me laugh. I think it misses the point if that's why one choses to believe in God but again, I certainly could be wrong.

    I think that being in the here and now is much more important than what may or may not lie ahead for us so the trip (being living my life) is more important than whether I go to heaven, hell, limbo, purgatory, reincarnation, just dead, or whatever.
    Just be nice while we're here.

    The Sufi's say 'There are as

    The Sufi's say 'There are as many ways to God as there are hairs on your head' and it is not confined to Islam.

    Most 'spiritual' practices can be practised regardless of religious belief.
  • PhillieG
    PhillieG Member Posts: 4,866 Member
    #45
    mariam_11_09 said:

    The Sufi's say 'There are as

    The Sufi's say 'There are as many ways to God as there are hairs on your head' and it is not confined to Islam.

    Most 'spiritual' practices can be practised regardless of religious belief.

    That wasn't
    Harri (hairy) Krishna was it?

    I am listening to Karen Armstrong from an interview with Bill Moyers from a while ago.
    She is a former nun who studies many different faiths.
    I have found it to be very interesting. I hope others do too. It gives food for thought.

    Listen to it Here
  • mariam_11_09
    mariam_11_09 Member Posts: 691 Member
    #46
    PhillieG said:

    That wasn't
    Harri (hairy) Krishna was it?

    I am listening to Karen Armstrong from an interview with Bill Moyers from a while ago.
    She is a former nun who studies many different faiths.
    I have found it to be very interesting. I hope others do too. It gives food for thought.

    Listen to it Here

    I don't know. I was just

    I don't know. I was just basing it on my own experience. I have engaged in spiritual practices that involved people of different religions. It was very unifying and I realised that we all have a common belief, it is just the details of the religion that seperate us.

    I have seen you mention the interview more than once, I think I will listen to it.
  • mariam_11_09
    mariam_11_09 Member Posts: 691 Member
    #47
    okay here is a question to
    okay here is a question to the people who pray to God ....

    When you pray for something in particular are you praying because that is what you want or someone else wants or are you really surrendering to God?

    In other words, if you have cancer do you pray that you will be healed? or do you pray so it be known that you are not ready to die or want to live life in health and then hand it over to God - let it be 'God Willing' we live or die or live in good health? or even just to have the strength and integrity to work through whatever is going on? How much expectation do you have?

    How do you know when you are exerting your will over Holy/God's Will?

    I am curious because many people who are not strongly religious give up on prayer because their prayers where never answered and other's who are very religous and pray desperately for things to happen in a very well defined way become disappointed and dissillusioned when God does not anser their prayers in the way they want.
  • Buzzard
    Buzzard Member Posts: 3,043 Member
    #48
    mariam_11_09 said:

    okay here is a question to
    okay here is a question to the people who pray to God ....

    When you pray for something in particular are you praying because that is what you want or someone else wants or are you really surrendering to God?

    In other words, if you have cancer do you pray that you will be healed? or do you pray so it be known that you are not ready to die or want to live life in health and then hand it over to God - let it be 'God Willing' we live or die or live in good health? or even just to have the strength and integrity to work through whatever is going on? How much expectation do you have?

    How do you know when you are exerting your will over Holy/God's Will?

    I am curious because many people who are not strongly religious give up on prayer because their prayers where never answered and other's who are very religous and pray desperately for things to happen in a very well defined way become disappointed and dissillusioned when God does not anser their prayers in the way they want.

    In my personal view......
    This is my belief right or wrong its mine not to debate but to simply give my explanation of why I pray.........
    1) When I pray for something in particular I open it up allowing God to determine and to dipense whatever His will will be in taking that issue into His hands and making the decisions either be it promptly or over a period of time. Most likely it is something that will be done but I pray that He has His hand in it as it is dealt with....

    2) Expectations of God...He has already done the highest loving gesture anyone could ever imagine, by the giving of His Son to the cross for us...but I think you were looking at a different answer to a different question so with that answered I will try to answer what I think you really was relating to...
    When I pray about my cancer I simply pray that whatever is His will is what I will accept, if you truly believe then its easy to do this, for its a win/win situation when you believe for those that want to believe, me being one of them, so I do not necessarily pray for healing, I pray that He takes control over what happens and whatever happens is how He wants it to be, and I trust in that, my calm is in that.

    3) Your heart tells you everything if you know how to read it......I wake up in the morning and I rate myself at how my growth in faith is doing by how long I go without my heart feeling as if I have hurt someone.....I let my heart be my guide through my faith.

    4) In my opinion, I think that the ones that give up on prayer only want something immediate and really never see the outlying resolutions that prayer really gives them...I also think that the ones that pray to say for instance (win the lottery) are doing so for the wrong reasons so their prayers are not answered by what the individual actually asked for.

    5) Prayer for me is because I believe in one God, and that through prayer I can retain calm through most any situation knowing that in the grand scheme of things, all will be well...in life or death with my belief in my God, all will be well........

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